In 2013, the Texas father discovered a text he considered rude about another woman on his daughter’s phone so he confiscated it.

“I was being a parent,” Jackson said. “You know, a child does something wrong, you teach them what’s right. You tell them what they did wrong and you give them a punishment to show that they shouldn’t be doing that.”

However, his ex-wife did not agree with the message Jackson was trying to send to their daughter. Her spouse is a police officer and soon the cops were involved to get the phone back. Yet when Jackson refused to give it up, he found himself in handcuffs.

“I didn’t want the police department telling me how to parent my child. It made no sense to me for them to show up and make a big deal out of something that was a small thing,” said Jackson. “I couldn’t believe they would go to this extent for a cell phone.”

Jackson was released from jail on $1,500 bail, but a year-and-a-half later was charged with misdemeanor theft.

“Why would you need to go arrest somebody for something like that? Don’t you have better things to do as a police officer?” Jackson asked.

Turns out, a Dallas County judge agreed with Jackson and ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict Jackson of theft. Even better, the father got to keep the assumed “stolen” phone.

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